Rapid Reads

Fall is an active time, and that means looking for books that read fast. I mean page-turning, don’t-bother-me-I’m-busy fast. Harlan Coben really delivers. Tell No One (2001) features a New York physician who is quite surprised to receive an email with a webcam image of his wife. Problem is, she’s been dead for eight years, and the doctor actually witnessed her murder. Any more tips would ruin the book, which would be a shame. Tell No One was adapted as a satisfying and very much page-by-page retelling of the book in 2008. Only one thing was changed: the setting. The movie was set in Paris, with the French countryside as a stand in for upstate New York action in the book.

In other rapid reads recommendations, I really enjoyed Blue Heaven (2008) by C.J. Box. Two young children witness the execution-style murder in the Idaho wilderness. Oops, then the killers spot them and give chase. (2008) by Lots of local color plus many different sleuths (amateur and professional) and bad guys rolled into one. Harlan Coben’s Just One Look (2004) is terrific, too. The book opens with a convicted killer confessing to the arson murder of a U.S. Attorney’s sister 15 years earlier. Oh, just one thing. Her death had been ruled an accident long ago. That’s just the first chapter. I dare you to read just that much and stop. Can’t be done! Just One Look features martial arts assassin Eric Wu. Wu is one of those only-takes-yes-for-an-answer kind of fellows, a character Coben also used in Tell No One.

And speaking of book vs. movie, consider the “Reel Reads” book club in Covington. Join us the first Saturday of the month as we watch a movie and discuss the book on which it was based. Popcorn anyone?

~ Contributed by John Graham, Adult Services Coordinator at the Mary Ann Mongan Branch